Senator MURRAY (12:38 PM) —The parliamentary secretary has not said whether he will be supporting Labor amendment No. 1 which, as he has rightly pointed out, is a comprehensive one. It is 2½ pages. I assume from what he said that the Labor Party—and I will ask you to comment, Senator Sherry—may be prepared to extract that section from that amendment so that it can be put separately in case the government does not support your entire amendment No. 1 on sheet 958.

I should point out briefly, if I may, a motivation for our amendment. The Investment and Financial Services Association, who yesterday were on the opposite side to us, are today on the same side as us. That is how it goes with lobbying groups. They were concerned that the bill did not include a key recommendation from the parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Securities' report on the Draft Second Corporate Law Simplification Bill 1996. Recommendation No. 2 states:

The committee recommends that the right of an individual director to call a meeting of members should be a mandatory rule for listed companies.

That committee said:

The committee accepts that recent events in relation to some companies have demonstrated a need for individual directors of listed companies to be able to act independently in the interests of all shareholders. The right to call a member's meeting gives some substance to this independence and it should not be a right that can be withdrawn through the constitution of a listed company.

The Australian Democrats continue to support the joint committee's view. Therefore, I think the position of the Labor Party is seminal with respect to this amendment.